Alabama

Penelope House director honored

Tonie Ann Torrans has been selected Penelope of the Year for the local district of the Daughters of Penelope.

Chosen from her local chapter, Thais chapter No. 344, Torrans won the district title, which represents chapters from Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina and Florida.

View full size(Courtesy Tonie Ann Torrans )Titsa Stratas, left, president of the local chapter of the Daughters of Penelope, celebrates with Tonie Ann Torrans after she was named Penelope of the Year. “I was thrilled to receive the award. Each district selected a ‘Penelope of the Year,’ so to be included in such a wonderful group of women was quite an honor,” Torrans said.

Last July, Torrans represented the district at the national convention in San Francisco, where the Daughters of Penelope was established 80 years ago.

The group has chapters around the world and is involved in philanthropic, educational and community improvement.

“Tonie Ann is a wonderful person and a wonderful Daughter of Penelope who goes above and beyond in everything she does, especially as executive director of the Penelope House Violence Center in Mobile,” said Elena Skardis Saviolakis, executive director of the Daughters of Penelope headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Torrans’ mother, Kathryn Coumanis, along with the local Daughters of Penelope, founded Penelope House, the first domestic violence shelter for women and their children in the state, Torrans said.

The shelter celebrates its 30th anniversary this year.

“We take pride in working with children and providing them a safe place to just be kids again. These children and their mothers have experienced so much suffering before coming to us,” Torrans said.

Penelope House provided shelter for more than 1,000 women and children in 2008. Approximately 60 percent of the group’s clients are children.

“The Daughters of Penelope, established in 1929 in San Francisco, is the largest women’s organization in the world with over 10,000 members,” said Coumanis. “Today, the Daughters of Penelope is a leader in philanthropic, educational and cultural activities with local chapters in the United States, Canada and Greece.”

The organization grew out of the American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association, established in 1922 to help raise awareness and education to combat racism and prejudice that Greek immigrants faced while making new homes in the United States.

Elections were held to elect new officers in June 2009. The local chapter is comprised of approximately 30 members.

The group’s members serve on the board of Penelope House as well as volunteer in other areas of the community including the Ronald McDonald House, Torrans said.

The members of the Daughters of Penelope are not all of Greek descent, said Torrans. But that fact does not keep the “sisters” from claiming each other. “We’re related or we say we are related,” Torrans said. “I think it’s a feeling of sisterhood that you share within a group. There’s a sense of tradition.”

For more information, visit www.ahepa.org/dop(Correspondent Amy Browning authored this report.)